Pierre Gasly amazingly squeezed his Alpine into seventh place in Saturday’s US Grand Prix qualifying, benefiting from a bit of luck with the yellow flag triggered by George Russell's crash into the barriers.

The team introduced upgrades in Austin, which were given only to Gasly, and they appear to be effective as the Frenchman equaled his best 2024 qualifying result from June’s Spanish Grand Prix.

However, the good position for Sunday’s race was at stake as Gasly was forced to see the stewards after the qualifying session to answer an unsafe release allegation.

It was determined that "the mechanic for car 10 [Gasly] released the car into the path of car 1 [Verstappen], causing the driver of car 1 to take significant evasive action."

The stewards then heard from Gasly, and team representatives and reviewed video, team radio, and in-car video evidence.

As a result, Alpine was only fined 5000€, and Gasly was fortunate to keep his excellent starting position.